Peter Bagge

(b. 11 December 1957, USA)

After one year in art school, Peter Bagge decided he wanted to be a comic artist, preferably an underground comic artist, since his inspiration came from the comix underground. Bagge's comix debut was 'Junior', published in 1980 in East Village Eye magazine. As soon as Bagge started drawing cartoons full-time, he was asked to become the managing editor of Robert Crumb's Weirdo magazine. He then started on his own magazine, Neat Stuff, and as he figured Weirdo would do quite well without him, he resigned from that position.

Neat Stuff was quite a success in the underground, but 'Hate' comix, first published in Neat Stuff, later turned into a continuing comix series, and took Peter Bagge to the big time. Peter Bagge has been called "the grunge cartoonist" because of his style and his underground roots, and probably even because he came from Seattle. But Bagge doesn't wear slacker shirts, he likes good ol' sixties and seventies pop music, and works on his comix as if it's a regular job. Youth culture and pop music still attract the artist, judging by Bagge's current DC series 'Yeah!', which features an interstellar girl pop band.